Staying on Track in a Complex Environment

Introduction

The “low hanging fruit” has been harvested in most places. Now comes the challenge of gathering the most bountiful harvest, that which is amongst the leaves and branches, without harming the tree. This will require practical expertise. This will require computational models that narrow the scatter band and are more accurate that are asking the right questions (which requires practical knowledge, technical knowledge and experience = expertise). In this editorial, I will point out some of the pitfalls I see in the inspection and reliability arenas and present some insight and solutions that will help “IJ” readers stay on track and emerge more successful as a result.

There are times when using a model that is very coarse (what I call flying at the 50,000' level) is appropriate and may serve as a screening method to justify further analysis of the higher risk equipment. Usually the coarser models are used because they take less time. Although I have seen, with the creative use of computing technology coupled with practical experience, more quantitative models, that are more accurate, achieve much better results in comparable timeframes, at no additional cost/time and less subjectivity.